New York 2014: Legacy, svelte and on your wall

Bill and Victoria Duddleston of Legacy Audio were demoing a new pair of their on-wall loudspeakers, the Silhouette ($3,960/pair). The new Silhouettes are similar in most respects to the old models, adding some size and some more elegant chamfering on the edges. Don’t worry — these on-walls are not your typical panty-waisted wallflowers — the now-standard AMT tweeter gets a 10″ woofer and a 10″ passive to bring out the lowest registers. Expect “big” things from this combo.

Also on demo were the Aeris ($21,450/pair in the new “Cabernet” finish). Accustic Arts massive, new, Mono Amp II Mk 2 ($13,150) was matched by the Tube Preamp II ($10,750) and Tube CD player ($16,900). I think this means that Accustic Arts is planning to make some inroads again into the US market; I haven’t really heard much of them in recent years. The big, bold aluminum cases with the chromed out accents are extremely friendly to the eye and the new designs to be more musical than the old, and the old were pretty darn good.

This was a crowded room, with several full demo systems on display including an interesting one featuring Ayon Audio tube gear, but the Legacy Audio one was what I got to hear, even though the sound was relatively low. I’ve said this repeatedly, so for the sake of redundancy I’ll repeat it here, the Aeris may well be the best sounding speakers in the Legacy Audio lineup, though Bill is promising something even more amazing with the new XDS speakers I’ll be checking out at RMAF. Detail and air, and sense of solid presence — these are the hallmarks of greatness. Love what they’re doing here!

As always, it was great to see the Duddlestons at the show — finding a more friendly pair is not possible.